


Weaving Threads Into Whole Cloth

by Merfilly



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Missing Scene, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-11
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-19 04:29:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few short scenes on bringing Sirius back to family, or how Tonks even knew to fall in love with Remus</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weaving Threads Into Whole Cloth

Sometimes, it took longer to calm Sirius than for Remus to find himself. It was worth it, though, to get to that quiet moment, both lying still with their heads pillowed on their arms or a bundled shirt. Tonight, feeling the deep loneliness pervading Sirius's soul, Remus decided he should address it while the quiet was still on them.

"You know you have family still, other than James' boy." Remus turned his head enough to watch Sirius's face.

"The halfblood?"

Remus snorted at that. "Harry is as well, you know."

Sirius scowled slightly, prompting Remus to reach up and smooth at the lines that had appeared until Sirius relaxed again. "She'd turn me in as soon as look at me, for what the family did to her mother."

That made Remus wonder, for even though Sirius had no doubt suffered, there were still those who believed in him."How do you have so little faith in people, Sirius?"

Sirius returned his wondering gaze evenly. "How do you have so much, after all you've suffered?"

Remus smiled, a small one, and managed a small shrug. "I keep making it work, and others prove me right."

Sirius gave a short laugh, then nodded. "You give us reason, my friend."

`~`~`~`~`

Remus tried not to be overwhelmed as he entered the house of Ted Tonks and his wife, Andromeda. While Ted might not be up to Black standards, the home reflected the culture that Andromeda had been raised with, as the simple decorations were quite rich in workmanship. 

"Remus." Andromeda was the one at home tonight, as he had hoped and planned for. What needed to be said had to be approached delicately, as Sirius was, quite wrongly, still a wanted man.

"Hello, Dromeda. Still lovely, I see," he complimented her. She smiled and inclined her head for the compliment, before leading him to the drawing room. That she was not treating him with disdain did a good bit to settle his nerves.

"Have you come because of this mess surrounding my cousin?" she asked him bluntly once drinks and finger foods had been brought to them.

Remus nodded once. "Things are not quite as they seem."

"So I would think. Sirius often had a dash of recklessness, but... I've found it hard to swallow the whole tale for many a year now."

Remus outwardly flinched. He'd believed, sadly, though the relief he had felt upon learning the truth of it all... well, Sirius had forgiven him at least. With Wormtail missing, it had been quite the nasty set up. "The truth of the matter will out, they say," he managed to respond. "Lily's and James' boy is at Hogwarts now... I know you must know that."

"Yes," she said with a small reserve. "I am uncertain of half the rumors I hear about it all."

"I can understand; the boy is even more precocious than his father for finding trouble to get into," Remus said fondly. "However, I am here about Sirius. It turns out that Pettigrew, the alleged victim, was actually at the heart of the whole matter," Remus said, managing to mostly keep the vitriol to a polite level. "He was hiding among the Weasley house, in his truest form."

"And managed to frame my cousin as the traitor and his own murderer?"

Remus nodded. "Yet... he escaped and the only witnesses to the proof are questionable."

Andromeda made a small moue at that. "Or more that Sirius's recklessness kept it from coming out properly?"

"Perhaps a touch of that." Remus drew in a breath. "Sirius is keeping himself hidden, but within reach to discharge his duty to James and Lily," he said. "However... he's been in that place for so long, and it affects the mind."

The woman nodded. "So it would. I take it you are doing all you can to tether him to the here and now, but..."

"He needs family."

Andromeda considered a long moment. "Have him come while my husband is away. I will speak with him, and then decide if I should risk my family to his influence... and the influences of the nefarious web he is caught in."

"I could not ask for more."

`~`~`~`~`

It was raining the night that the large dog showed up on the doorstep off the kitchen. Andromeda herself, warned by a message passed to her by owl, hidden inside an more innocuous message opened the door for him. 

"Oh, you would be dripping all over," she chided softly. "Upstairs, to the left, second door."

Obediently, with a thump of his tail, the dog took off for the offered room. Andromeda withdrew her wand and whispered 'exaresco' to set off the drying charm. She gave him time to get clean and decent before going up to join him.

"Dromeda," Sirius said as she stepped inside, going to engulf her in a warm, fierce hug. The strength of it was almost worrying in the intensity to Andromeda, but she returned it as best she could.

"Sirius, I am joyed by your freedom..."

"...such as it is," Sirius said darkly.

"...but I do need to know more, in order to better help you," Andromeda continued despite his interruption. "While I don't need the snogging details from your school boy escapades, I want all of the story, Sirius, before I risk my husband and daughter to your presence in their lives."

Sirius settled on the end of the room's settee, sitting somewhat sideways to watch her. "I spoke to you of James..." he began, pain already rising at how broken so much of his perceptions of those long-lost happy memories were, reshaped by Azkaban.

Andromeda took one of his hands, holding it, as she listened with her mind and her heart for the long hidden truth.

`~`~`~`~`

"So... you're my cousin?"

Sirius sized up the Auror with the quietly demure presence... and he smiled. 

"Yes, and you don't have to be polite with me, no matter what your mother said about best behavior. I don't bite; Remus taught me that much anyway," he said lightly, and was rewarded with a brightening of her hair, and a smile.

"She said I should be careful of your moods," the younger woman said with a blunt style that suited Sirius perfectly.

"She would, as if I don't recall the absolute temper she showed that one time in..." Sirius recalled himself, as Tonks' eyes went very wide in hopes of a good story on her mother. "No, I'm here to get to know you, to tell you all I can about _him_ and this whole bloody mess."

"It's why Moody agreed, yes," Tonks agreed, settling on the bench. "But.., it's nice to actually see mom's not the only good one of the bunch."

"I could have been just like them," Sirius said. "Regulus was... though they tell me he turned against _him_ as well."

Tonks nodded. "Ancient history to me. Mother keeps on with the news," she added. "So... I guess we've got a bit of talking to do."

"So we do," Sirius said fondly. "You do know Remus, yes? He'll be in and out from time to time."

"I'd like that... Moody said to be wary of him, but not why, and I know he was dismissed from Hogwarts," she answered that.

"I promise he doesn't bite much of the time either," Sirius promised her.

`~`~`~`~`

"He wouldn't want you to carry his death like this," Remus said as he held an umbrella over Tonks, her hair as black as her clothing. 

"What do you know of what I am feeling?!" Tonks demanded. "I was there, right where I could have...."

"...been her target instead, and then Sirius would have another death to drive him further past the bend." Remus's voice was tight with quiet grief; for so long things had been so poor between he and Sirius, and then they'd had something of an idyll. For that to end so violently, to leave Remus as the last....

"I'm sorry." Tonks drew him back to the present, eyes coming up to his face. "He spoke of you so much. And when you were there when I visited..." She searched for the right words, trying not to futz this up when they were both hurting.

"Don't speak of that. Frankly, I don't think I am ready." Remus could not help the honest statement as he looked at her. "I am glad you did get to know him."

"Me too."

Remus saw her to her mother's side, then pulled away to go his own way. He was alone once more, burdened with the need to protect the only child of a once close knit group of four.

He didn't realize that her eyes stayed on him until she could no longer see him, washed in the feeling of a shared loss.

`~`~`~`~`

"Why me?"

Tonks looked at the man she had declared her undying love for, and could only smile.

"I feel like... fate twisted us toward one another, but that's not all," Tonks told him. "You encouraged Sirius to seek his family out. And I found that I truly liked him. However... my cousin could never speak of anything without your name coming forward, and that made me know you, even at a distance."

Remus shook his head. "I've never been anything spectacular outside of this curse upon me."

Tonks leaned in and kissed him softly. "You've never seen yourself through someone else's eyes."

**Author's Note:**

> I can't stand being hit with a relationship out of the blue apparently. This is my fill-in-the-blanks take on how Tonks got more familiar with Remus. Apologies if it's been done to death.


End file.
